Serbia gives state funeral to former king and family

May 26, 2013|Reuters

* King Petar Karadjordjevic exiled in 1941, proclaimedtraitor by communists

* Funeral important for reconciliation in Serbia, decadesafter World War Two

By Branko Filipovic

OPLENAC, Serbia, May 26 (Reuters) - Serbian governmentofficials and hundreds of mourners attended the reburial of KingPetar II Karadjordjevic and other members of the deposedYugoslavian royal family on Sunday decades after their deaths inexile - an event seen as an important act of nationalreconciliation.

The bodies of Petar, his wife Queen Aleksandra, mother QueenMaria and brother Prince Andrej, had been exhumed fromcemeteries in the United States, Britain and Greece.

The four coffins draped in Serbian royal flags and escortedby Serb army guardsmen were transferred to the Oplenac royalchapel in the southwestern town of Topola.

Petar succeeded his father King Aleksandar in 1934, who wasassassinated in Marseilles, France, by Croatian and Bulgariannationalists.

After Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941, Petarfled the country and spent the most of World War Two in exile inBritain. After the war, Petar was proclaimed a traitor by thecommunist leadership, which also abolished the monarchy.

His property was confiscated and he remained exiled untildeath in 1970 in the United States.

President Tomislav Nikolic, Prime Minister Ivica Dacic,Patriarch Irinej and the head of Serb Orthodox church were amongthose attending the state funeral.

The ceremony was an act of reconciliation between Serbs whosupported the royal family or communist forces during World WarTwo.

Tens of thousands of people died in Serbia between 1941 and1945 in a civil war between royalist guerrillas and communistpartisans who also fought the German occupiers. The two campsare still at odds decades after the war.

"More Serbs were killed by the Serbian hand than by the handof the occupier," Nikolic said in a eulogy. "We cannot, we mustnot allow divisions and injustice anymore."

After the war, royalist supporters were killed or persecutedby the government of Josip Broz Tito.

Petar's son, Crown Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, and hisfamily were allowed to return to Serbia in mid-1990s by SlobodanMilosevic as Yugoslavia disintegrated .

"This funeral was the fulfilment of historic justice. Theyhad to be brought home," said Zoran Kotarac, a mourner from thevillage of Slankamen, north of Belgrade.